Overcome Your Gut + Digestive Issues With Ancestral Nutrition
Cobb Salad (A Healthy Easy Meal to Take With You on the Go)
One thing that has really helped me with both eating healthy and staying lean is bringing my own meals with me on the go. I’ll do this when I’m going to school, work, or on a long hike. When you bring your own food you have a much better idea of what’s in the food you are eating and the quality of the ingredients compared to when you buy food out.
By this I mean that when you make your own food, you can ensure that your food is fresh, mostly organic, not from factory farms, and locally grown if possible. All of those will make your food more nutritious. You can also control the calories and macros in your meal. This is helpful whether you track your Calories and/or macros or not. Oil, cheese, and other high Calorie foods are often added in excess to restaurant meals. Even seemingly healthy meals like salads can be served with high calorie sugary dressings. They also often serve much larger portions then you would make for yourself at home. These two things can make restaurant meals have a lot more calories and thus make it harder to maintain or lose weight.
Today I am sharing with you a great healthy recipe that is perfect to take with you on the go: my cobb salad recipe! This has been one of my favorite meals to bring with me to school or work lately. It’s super delicious, healthy, and satisfying! I like to meal prep by making three salads at a time, this takes me about 40 minutes, but then I have three nice nutritious meals ready to go for the week. Anyways I hope you enjoy the recipe!
With love from my kitchen to yours,
Kayley
Cobb Salad
AuthorKayley O'BrienBegin by preheating the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit and taking the bacon out of the fridge (to allow it to come to room temperature for more even cooking).
Season your chicken breast with salt and pepper and place skin side up on a baking sheet. Once the oven is preheated, place on a rack in the middle of the oven and bake for about 30 minutes. There are multiple ways to check if your chicken is done. I do this by either taking the temperature of the thickest part (It’s done at 160 degrees Fahrenheit) or cutting a small incision in the thickest part of the chicken and checking the color. If the meat is white it's done. If it has a pinkish hue, it needs to cook for a few more minutes. Then remove from oven and let rest for 5-10 minutes.
While your chicken is cooking, make the hardboiled eggs. Place your eggs in a pot with enough water to cover them. Bring to a boil and boil for about 8 minutes. Make sure you add the eggs with the cool water at the beginning so their temperature increases gradually. If you add the eggs to boiling water, the dramatic temperature change can cause them to crack. Once done remove eggs and allow them to cool.
Then, lay the bacon strips out on a cold pan so they are not crowded or overlapping. Heat the pan over medium heat and cook for about 8 - 12 minutes, flipping occasionally, till golden brown and lightly crisp. Then remove from pan and set aside.
Next make the dressing. Place all the dressing ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend till pureed and creamy. If you don’t have a food processor or blender, combine ingredients in a jar and shake vigorously.
Now it's time to assemble your salads! Chop your chicken into cube like pieces, chop up your bacon, peal and slice your hardboiled eggs, and season the eggs with salt and pepper. Now divide the lettuce, chicken, bacon, eggs, tomatoes, and blue cheese among three bowls or Tupperware. If you are eating the salads now chop up the avocado, salt it, and distribute amongst the salads, serve and enjoy!
If bringing them togo later, chop a piece of avocado off (leaving the skin on and salting the exposed green part) right before you leave the house and throw in the salad. Wait to chop up the avocado till write before you eat it, otherwise it will go bad.
Ingredients
Directions
Begin by preheating the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit and taking the bacon out of the fridge (to allow it to come to room temperature for more even cooking).
Season your chicken breast with salt and pepper and place skin side up on a baking sheet. Once the oven is preheated, place on a rack in the middle of the oven and bake for about 30 minutes. There are multiple ways to check if your chicken is done. I do this by either taking the temperature of the thickest part (It’s done at 160 degrees Fahrenheit) or cutting a small incision in the thickest part of the chicken and checking the color. If the meat is white it's done. If it has a pinkish hue, it needs to cook for a few more minutes. Then remove from oven and let rest for 5-10 minutes.
While your chicken is cooking, make the hardboiled eggs. Place your eggs in a pot with enough water to cover them. Bring to a boil and boil for about 8 minutes. Make sure you add the eggs with the cool water at the beginning so their temperature increases gradually. If you add the eggs to boiling water, the dramatic temperature change can cause them to crack. Once done remove eggs and allow them to cool.
Then, lay the bacon strips out on a cold pan so they are not crowded or overlapping. Heat the pan over medium heat and cook for about 8 - 12 minutes, flipping occasionally, till golden brown and lightly crisp. Then remove from pan and set aside.
Next make the dressing. Place all the dressing ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend till pureed and creamy. If you don’t have a food processor or blender, combine ingredients in a jar and shake vigorously.
Now it's time to assemble your salads! Chop your chicken into cube like pieces, chop up your bacon, peal and slice your hardboiled eggs, and season the eggs with salt and pepper. Now divide the lettuce, chicken, bacon, eggs, tomatoes, and blue cheese among three bowls or Tupperware. If you are eating the salads now chop up the avocado, salt it, and distribute amongst the salads, serve and enjoy!
If bringing them togo later, chop a piece of avocado off (leaving the skin on and salting the exposed green part) right before you leave the house and throw in the salad. Wait to chop up the avocado till write before you eat it, otherwise it will go bad.
Notes
Nutrition:
| Ingredients | Cals | Fat | Carbs | Protein |
| 0.75 lbs bone in chicken breasts with skin (bone included in weight) | 585 | 31.5g | 0g | 70.5g |
| 6 cups romain lettuce | 48 | 0.9g | 9.3 g | 3.6g |
| 1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese (1.5 oz) | 150 | 12g | 1.5g | 9g |
| 3 slices bacon (3.3 oz) | 135.9 | 8.7g | 0g | 15.5g |
| 12 cherry tomatoes (200g) | 36 | 0.4g | 4g | 0.9g |
| 1 avocado (135g) | 153.3 | 20.4g | 10.8g | 2.7g |
| 3 egg | 210 | 15g | 0g | 18g |
| 3 Tbsp avocado oil | 390 | 42g | 0g | 0g |
| total (serves 3) | 1,708.2 | 130.9g | 25.6g | 120.2g |
| 1 serving | 569.4 | 43.6g | 8.5g | 40.1g |
Note:
- Nutrition is based on the products I use. I provide a nutrition table so that you can quickly check to see if your food products match or so that you can easily calculate the nutrition for any changes you want to make to the recipe. I think this helps if you have very specific diet goals and/or fitness and/or health goals. I also wanted you to be able to see exactly where I get the numbers for my nutrition facts so that you can see that they are reliable and learn more about macro breakdowns of food.
Works Cited
1. “How to Tell If Your Chicken Is Fully Cooked.” Spoon University, 28 Apr. 2017, spoonuniversity.com/how-to/how-to-tell-if-chicken-is-cooked-fully-through.
2. Nutritionix. Gladson. https://www.nutritionix.com/ Accessed 21 January 2019.
3. “Nutrition Label of Avocado Oil.” Chosen Foods,San Diego,CA, 2019.
4. “Nutrition Label of Eggs.”Vital Farms, Austin, Tx, 2019.
About Kayley
Kayley is a certified gut health nutrition coach who helps people to overcome their chronic gut and digestive issues at the root using the principles of ancestral nutrition and holistic health. (Continue Reading Here)
